Words Matter

How we speak about adoption, and especially in the hearing of children who have been adopted, makes a big difference in how those children learn to view their place in the family. Language around adoption matters. In classrooms, faith communities, neighborhoods, sports teams, and families, the language people use when speaking about adoption can cause unintentional pain when negative phrases are used. The graphic below (published by AdoptConnect) shows some examples of both negative and positive adoption language and how we can re-frame common ways of speaking about the adoption process. Let’s get used to using positive adoption language and encouraging the people in our families and communities to use positive adoption language too.

If you have any questions about any of these changes to adoption language, we would be happy to dialogue with you about them. We would also love to hear any suggestions of ways you have flipped the script on adoption language in your home.